![]() ![]() Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew. Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick how to explain why Mars goes “backwards” sometimes how to make electricity with magnets how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.Īs Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). It harnesses an unreal number-infinity-to tackle real-world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous. In it, mathematician Steven Strogatz not only takes us through the history of calculus, from Archimedes to the present daypointing out its extraordinary contribution to modern life along the waybut also conveys some of the excitement of doing math. Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz’s brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity it’s about simplicity. Infinite Powers: the Story of Calculus is a popular math book, written for a general audience. We wouldn’t have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket. ![]() Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus-how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better. To shed light on any continuous shape, object, motion, process, or phenomenonno matter how wild and complicated it may appearreimagine it as an infinite series of simpler parts, analyze those, and then add the results back together to make sense of the original whole. ![]()
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